Mark Bappe

Mark Bappe is a Creative Director at CTP, an advertising agency based in Boston’s North End. He has been a MAC member since 2001. He served on the board of directors for a couple of years and now serves in an advisory role for MAC’s branding and communications.

Prior to joining MAC, he helped establish AnimalKind, in North Carolina. AnimalKind’s mission is to solve overpopulation through prevention, by subsidizing surgeries to low income families. His artwork can be seen on the Animal Friendly license plates and a lot the the branding work for MAC. Mark lives on the North Shore with his Dog (Elsa), Cat (Eliza), Wife (Jen) and kids (Owen and Kate).

Kara Holmquist

Kara Holmquist is the director of advocacy for the MSPCA, and has law degree from Suffolk University Law School. Kara has been a member of the Massachusetts Animal Coalition (MAC) since 2001. Her work with MAC has focused on the Advocacy Committee and the “I’m Animal Friendly” license plate program. Kara is on the steering committee of the Humane USA-Massachusetts political action committee (PAC), which seeks to elect humane-minded legislators to office. Kara is a part of the newly formed Animal Law Practice Group of the Massachusetts Bar Association. Kara lives with her dog (Finley), husband (Kiko) and daughter (Story).

James Q. Knight, DVM

James Q. Knight, DVM, served in the U.S. Army, later pursuing veterinary medicine and graduating from Michigan State University  in 1973. After spending 12 years in Arizona in a mixed animal practice, he relocated to New England where he served as the U.S.D.A. veterinary medical officer for Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. Dr. Knight then returned to private practice and worked in several small animal practices as well as  two nonprofit facilities.

Dr. Knight joined Becker College in September 2002 as director of animal studies programs. Since his arrival, the veterinary technology and veterinary science programs have been re-accredited twice, and he has been instrumental in the creation of the pre-veterinary, laboratory animal management, and the equine studies program concentrations. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he has clinic responsibilities, teaches veterinary ethics and companion animal diseases, and directs field trips for students to local animal shelters.

Dr. Knight’s special interests in veterinary medicine include shelter medicine, surgical sterilization of dogs and cats, and animal welfare. He has written a column on pets for the Amherst Bulletin, authored a chapter in a textbook on surgical nursing, and has written a forward for a book about the l ink between animal abuse and violence to people.

Actively involved in professional associations, he is a past president of the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA) and past chair of the Animal Welfare Committee and the Veterinary Technicians Committee. He was the 2005 recipient of the MVMA Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Knight is the founder of Link-Up Education Network (now called Safe Pets Safe People), a nonprofit organization of professionals trying to break the link between animal abuse and violence to people, and is a founding member and past board member of the Massachusetts Animal Coalition and a board member of the Afghan Stray Animal League.

With a translator and a dictionary at his fingertips, Dr. Knight went to the Middle East in 2005, 2006, and 2007 to serve as a consultant to the Kabul University  Veterinary School. There he was integral in restoring the functionality of the veterinary clinic, which had been out of commission for eight years. Already well-versed in large animal veterinary practice, the clinic benefited from Dr. Knight’s small animal expertise. He also taught surgical techniques and practice to students and faculty there.

Carter Luke

Carter Luke is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a post he has held since 2006. Prior to being selected as President, he was Executive Vice President.Before joining the MSPCA staff in 1985, Luke worked for two humane organizations in Wisconsin, starting in 1977.

A former elementary school teacher, he received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, majoring in mathematics with concentrated study in wildlife ecology. He went to graduate school in Education at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.

Luke serves on the Boards of a variety of non-profit organizations including the London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals, the American Fondouk in Morocco, and the Thornton Burgess Society in Sandwich, Massachusetts.  He has participated in a number of research projects concerning animal population dynamics, hoarding of animals, and the relationship between cruelty to animals and other crime.”

Amy Marder, VMD, CAAB

Dr. Marder is a veterinarian and a Certified Applied Animal Behavior Consultant through the Animal Behavior Society. She is a graduate of the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Veterinary Medicine and completed the very first residency in veterinary behavior at the same institution. For the past 20 years, Dr. Marder has been helping owners and their pets with behavior problems through her private practice New England Veterinary Behavior Associates. From 1999 to 2001, Dr.  Marder served as Vice President of Behavioral Medicine at the ASPCA in New York City, where she founded the Center for Behavioral Therapy. During her time at the ASPCA Dr. Marder studied the behavioral evaluation of shelter dogs with the purpose of developing an objective and predictive test which could be used in animal shelters.

Dr. Marder served as Director of the Behavioral Service at the Animal Rescue League of Boston has been Director for the Center for Shelter Dogs for the past 5 years. In her current post she continues to develop and oversee the Match-Up II Shelter Dog Rehoming Program and participates in several research projects.  She lectures and consults to shelters and at conferences throughout the US and internationally about animal behavior issues. Additionally, as an adjunct faculty member at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, Dr. Marder has hosted veterinary students from around the country for shelter behavior externships.   Dr. Marder is also on the advisory board of the National Canine Research Council.

Dr. Marder has written two books and edited another for pet owners on general pet care.  She was the author of Prevention Magazine’s “Your Healthy Pet” column and has been a frequent contributor to veterinary textbooks and journals.

Gary Patronek, DVM

Dr. Patronek is a regular contributor to the scientific literature, and was one of four editors for the Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters, sponsored by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV), where he was a founding board member. He is an author on over 50 peer-reviewed publications as well as numerous book chapters, and is currently working on the first textbook to address the issue of forensic mental health evaluation of animal maltreatment offenders.  He  worked in private veterinary practice before beginning his career in shelter medicine. He obtained his PhD in epidemiology at Purdue University where he was one of the first scientists to study the problem of pet relinquishment to shelters and became a scientific advisor to the National Council for Pet Population Study and Policy. Dr Patronek was elected to the National Academies of Practice (NAP) representing veterinary medicine and was a founding board member of the Massachusetts Animal Coalition.

Dr. Patronek became the second Director of the Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy at what is now the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and was the first Agnes Varis University Chair in Science and Society at Tufts University where he supervised the Graduate Program in Animals and Public Policy, whose graduates have gone on to leadership positions in animal welfare as well as careers in veterinary medicine and law, among others. He established the interdisciplinary Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium (HARC) at Tufts, whose work was instrumental in the listing of animal hoarding under the criteria for the new hoarding disorder in DSM-5 (Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

More recently, he was Vice President for Animal Welfare at the Animal Rescue League of Boston, during which time he helped develop their Center for Shelter Dogs. He is an avid photographer and kayaker. Following his retirement from the ARL, he currently works as an independent consultant.

Laura Klein Plunkett

Laura joined the Massachusetts Animal Coalition in 2010.  She served on the Operations Committee and as a Caseworker and Volunteer Coordinator for AniMatch, where she wrote and managed grant applications, edited and compiled the AniMatch policies and procedure manual, and edited the AniMatch newsletter.  Laura moved to Texas in late 2012 and continued to manage AniMatch grants, maintain the AniMatch contact database, and publish the AniMatch newsletter.  Laura worked for animal welfare organizations and volunteered for non-profits in various capacities for over 35 years, including being a foster provider, volunteer coordinator, executive committee member and board member for Poodle Rescue of New England.  Laura studied studio art and graphic design at Indiana University, then returned to school for a degree in Business Administration and a certificate in Library Science.  Laura’s professional career was in operations management for a multinational retailer, with extensive experience in customer service, P&L responsibility, negotiation, transportation analysis and project management.  Laura and her husband share their Austin area home with their cat, Shlomo.

Bryn Rogers, MS

Bryn Rogers is the Project Manager at the Boston MSPCA Adoption Center. Bryn has been a member of the Massachusetts Animal Coalition (MAC) since 2004 and became a member of the board in 2009. During Hurricane Katrina Bryn helped coordinate the reunification efforts to find the owners of the animals taken in by MAC during the disaster. She is also a graduate of the Animals and Public Policy Program at Tufts Veterinary School. She lives with a varying number of foster cats and kittens.

William Schawbel

William Schawbel is the founder and CEO of The Schawbel Corporation, a business he formed in 1981 through the acquisition of two divisions from The Gillette Company. The Mosquito Repellent division of the company was sold in July 2014, which precipitated a name change to Schawbel Technologies, LLC.

Prior to founding The Schawbel Corporation, Bill held senior management positions with The Gillette Company, including President of Gillette-Japan and President of Braun North America. His marketing and management experience includes significant contributions to many of Gillette’s divisions within the U.S. and internationally, with particular success in the areas of acquisitions and new business development.

Bill is a 1961 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has served his alma mater as a Trustee, Chair of the Board of Overseers, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Co-Chair of the James Brister Society. Bill is an alumnus of the Boston Latin School where he has served as President of the School’s Foundation and chaired its Capital Campaign Committee.

Bill’s philanthropic interests are in public education, diversity, and entrepreneurship. He has also been and is involved with over 20 non-profit Boards.